US teenager Katie Ledecky has smashed the world record in the 1500 freestyle for her second gold medal at the world swimming championships.
Looking stronger at the end of the gruelling race than she did at the beginning, the 16-year-old obliterated the world record in the 1500-metre freestyle by more than six seconds on Tuesday night for her second gold medal at the world swimming championships.
"She's absolutely fit," marvelled Mereia Belmonte of Spain, who finished far back in fourth. "Impressive. She's probably made in the same factory as Michael Phelps."
Ledecky went stroke for stroke much of the race with defending world champion Lotte Friis, the Danish swimmer slightly ahead and both well under the world-record pace set by Kate Ziegler in 2007.
Ledecky edged out front at the 1300 mark and began to pull away, touching in 15 minutes, 36.53 seconds.
A woman ran through the crowd with a blue flag that proclaimed "World Record" - Ziegler's mark of 15:42.54 never standing a chance.
Friis also went under the old record, 15:38.88, but it was only good enough for silver.
New Zealand's Lauren Boyle took the bronze.
"Around the last 200, I knew I could take off," Ledecky said.
The 1500 is a non-Olympic event - the longest women's race at the Summer Games is the 800.
Ledecky looks even stronger than she did last year.
"It was really tough, my hardest race ever," Ledecky said.
"I knew we were going pretty fast and I figured that whoever was going to come out on top was probably going to get the world record.
"So I just had to be careful not to push it too early or push it too late and just touch the wall first."
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